About

Being a Mechanical Engineer Professor in Puerto Rico, I ended up
collaborating with the local MSP Program (U.S. Department of Education's
Mathematics and Science Partnerships Program), through the Faculty of
Education at the University of Puerto Rico in San Juan (a program that
provides professional development to educators with the goal of student
achievement in math and science).

I was selected to be in charge of robotics workshops for elementary
school teachers, that is where I discover the LEGO WeDo platform. LEGO WeDo
is a great kit designed for the classroom with a number of activities for the
teacher that covers what I could call STEM+A (science, technology,
engineering, math, and arts). Working with a wonderful group of teachers, I
decided to design new robots so they would have additional material for their
students. Since I know many teachers
will also need new class material, I felt motivated to share new designs that
go over the 12 original models already included.

I am not alone with the designs, my brother Osvaldo is heavily
working in new surprising models, and he already surpassed me in number of models!If you have any questions, or a especial request, feel free to write.

7 comments:

I have just bought WeDo for my son's 8th birthday. I didn't buy the software as it is rather pricey and my son enjoys programming with Scratch so I am hoping he will devise his own programmes to manoeuvre the devices he builds.

However, I was very disappointed that Lego did not include any designs and build instructions with the WeDo kit I bought ... and the only free designs on their website require the WeDo Resource kit. So, finding designs and pictures of the builds on your site was a huge relief - I am very grateful indeed.

What I wanted to ask is whether or not you plan to publish any Scratch projects or tutorials to accompany your wonderful WeDo bots. Hopefully my son and I will get some basic movement going but we might need some help on some of the more sophisticated techniques.

Unfortunately, there are no programming or robotics opportunities at his school yet, so we are teaching ourselves at home!

One of my goals is to learn Scratch so I can post a few more goodies. Usually the software provided is best to motivate kids into learning something more formal, such as Scratch. Well, the software includes the guide you were looking, not just the how to assemble guide but how it combines with classes. The good thing about the WeDo software, is that it is really intuitive. There is no need to know any basics about programming. Fortunately, Tufts University has the guide online for you to check and decide (http://ase.tufts.edu/DevTech/courses/readings/WeDoIntro.pdf)

Since you picked my curiosity, I started assembling a crash course on Scratch, still not yet for a post. This is my brief summary:

BSP Robotics assembled a really nice intro about how to use Scratch and WeDo (http://bpsrobotics.wikispaces.com/file/view/scratch+wedo+tutorial.pdf). Even better, Barbara Ericson from Georgia Tech has the 12 original activities on Scratch! (http://home.cc.gatech.edu/ice-gt/uploads/62/Activities%20for%20LEGO%20WeDo%20With%20Scratch%20Scripts.pdf).

I believe this can help you to start having fun. I see Scratch as the software for grown ups, so, I bet you that after practicing Barbara's tutorial you will be experts.

I think Scratch will take you about 20 seconds to learn! Yes, I am sure the Lego software is very intuitive but it is expensive (in the UK at least) for home use like ours, and you only find out the assembly instructions aren’t included in the WeDo kit until after you’ve bought it. So, your site showing us how we could build the various models was a huge relief.

My son taught himself Scratch at seven and a half. He’s quite good at maths and the feeling is that 9-11 year olds in the UK are at the maths level suitable for Scratch, though a numerate 7 year old can handle it with ease.

Thanks for the BSP Robotics and Georgia Tech links to Scratch WeDo tutorials – they will be a huge help too.

I’ll check back regularly to see when your Scratch crash course is up – and thanks for responding to my questions so positively, I really appreciate it.